With the increased competitive environment amongst the providers of personal computers (PCs) and their suppliers, an increased need for improved productivity at lower cost and higher quality has existed as never before. One of the key components in a PC is the baseboard 5, sometimes referred to as a motherboard, in which many components of a computer system are attached. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a baseboard 5 may comprise a printed circuit board of multiple layer design in which holes are drilled therein to accept card-edge slots (slots) 40 and, directly or indirectly, a processor 15. It should be noted that FIG. 1 is provided as an example of a simplified baseboard 5. As would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, numerous other components, not shown, would be connected to the baseboard 5.
Once the baseboard 5 or printed circuit board is assembled with holes drilled into the appropriate locations, slots 40, with pins 50 extending from the underside of the slot 40, as shown in FIG. 2B, are manually inserted into the appropriate holes drilled into the printed circuit board or baseboard 5. This insertion of the pins 50 into the holes requires care so that the pins 50 are not bent and the slot 40 does not tilt to one side or another. This process is repeated for each and every slot 40 that needs to be inserted in the particular printed circuit board. Once all slots 40 are inserted through the holes in the printed circuit board, the pins 50 extend beneath the printed circuit board. Thereafter, the printed circuit board is passed over a wave solder machine that solders the pins 50 into position on the printed circuit board. Finally, a card 55 is inserted into electrical contact card slot 45 (card slot 45), as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2A, within slot 40 so that card 55 makes electrical contact with the based board 5. This card 55 may be, but not limited to, a memory board, a sound board, or other peripheral device controller board.
FIG. 2A is a top view of the slot 40, shown in FIG. 1, while FIG. 2B is a side view of the slot 40. Further, FIG. 2A shows further detail of the card slot 45 with the electrical contact points for the card 55 to establish electrical contact therewith. Also, FIG. 2B shows the pins 50 extending through the bottom of the slot 40 and it is these pins 50 which are inserted into baseboard 5 or other printed circuit board.
In addition to improper placement of the slot 40 in the printed circuit board by the installer, during the wave soldering process it is possible for the pins 50 of the slots to be pushed up through the holes in the PC board and possibly have the slots 40 tilted at an angle. Once the slots are tilted at an angle it may become difficult to properly position a board 55, such as, but not limited to a memory board, sound board, or other peripheral board, into the slot 40 so as to make proper electrical contact more difficult or for one board 55 to come into contact with another board 55 in another slot 40. During production inspection phase a board 5 with a tilted slot 45 would be rejected and either reworked to correct the problem requiring additional time, labor, and materials, and increasing the possibility for added handling related damage or entirely scrapped. Thus, it is unlikely that the board 5 would be shipped to the customer.
Thus, the present method for placement of slots into printed circuit boards is time-consuming since each slot is inserted individually and may cause tilting problems to occur due to human error or the action of the wave solder machine.
Therefore, a device and method is needed that will simplify and make more efficient the process of installing slots into printed circuit boards. Further, this device and method should further reduce the possibility of tilting occurring for a given slot either due to manual displacement or the action of a wave disorder machine.